To continue our celebration of ODE Group’s female engineers for International Women in Engineering Day, Alice Parish Matheson, a Senior Process Engineer, discussed her role as an engineer at ODE.

What is an engineer to you and why did you want to become one?

An engineer is someone who develops solutions to solve technical challenges.

My favourite subjects at school were Maths and the Sciences. When researching university courses, these subjects were prerequisites for engineering degrees. I was drawn to Chemical Engineering in particular because of the opportunity to innovate – to develop and design processes to create products and materials for a broad range of industries.

What opportunities have you had through your work at ODE?

Prior to ODE, the majority of projects I had worked on were hydrocarbon-based. ODE has given me the opportunity to work on a number of renewable studies and projects, developing and optimising energy solutions for the future. Being able to work on projects that will enable the UK to significantly reduce its carbon emissions gives me pride in the work I do; it has been a very valuable experience for me.

At ODE, I have also had the opportunity to be closely involved with the delivery of projects for several UK gas terminals. Being able to easily visit sites has given me a good understanding of some of the challenges on the ground without having to travel halfway around the world!

What was a stand-out moment of your career?

Working up from a junior level to my current position as Senior Process Engineer has steadily given me more responsibility and it is rewarding to now help train and develop younger engineers as they progress their own careers.

Personally, becoming Chartered a few years ago was great recognition of all the hard work invested in four years of University study and career experience. I now feel very confident in my role and look forward to what the future might bring!

Michele Eaves is the Projects and Engineering Director for ODE AM. Michele gave us her thoughts on the engineering industry from her perspective as a director for #INWED2020. > Read More

As part of ODE Group’s recognition of its female engineers for #INWED2020, we spoke to Sarah Eagle, a Project Controls Lead Engineer, about her experiences in the engineering industry. > Read More

23rd June 2020 is the International Women in Engineering Day 2020 (INWED), organised by the Women’s Engineering Society, to celebrate and promote women working in the engineering industry. To recognise this day, we will be highlighting our female engineers across the ODE Group, starting with Narmina Williams, a Technical Safety Engineer. > Read More

The Babbage Installation

ODE Asset Management Ltd (ODE) is delighted to confirm that it has secured a contract from NEO Energy (NEO) for the Babbage Field in the Southern North Sea.

This is a significant ODE milestone as the first installation and pipeline operator (duty holder) appointment in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

ODE is no stranger to the Babbage asset. The company has acted as operations and maintenance provider since the project phase and successfully transitioned the platform from normally manned to not normally manned status in recent years.

ODE’s continued involvement in Babbage is important business continuity for NEO Energy, in particular securing existing jobs managing the offshore asset.

Sandy Reid, managing director of ODE Asset Management, commented: “This is the first of two outsourced duty holder contracts we’re bringing across the line in 2020 and is a tremendous achievement for our Great Yarmouth and Aberdeen teams.  We’re delighted to have the trust of NEO as their operations partner for Babbage, and hope to further build our relationship by helping them achieve their ambitious growth plans.  We’ve got an excellent track record of keeping the facility performing above platform design efficiency levels whilst also safely minimising the cost of ownership.  We intend to maintain this track record despite the current industry challenges and those of maintaining an aging asset.”

He added: “This contract recognises ODE’s experience and expertise in operations support and builds on our long history of supporting producing assets.  It also demonstrates that ODE’s offering and approach, focused on efficiency and bespoke integration with clients, challenges the market norm. As the North Sea matures, the ODE approach addresses the industry’s cost related challenges.”

Lynne MacPherson, NEO’s asset manager, commented: “The Babbage operatorship is an important milestone for NEO as we develop the company in the UKCS.  We continue to see significant value in the region with a strategy to grow, both organically and through acquisition, to achieve production of 80,000-100,000 boepd. In these challenging times, we’ve worked closely with our operations partner ODE to safely and effectively transition operatorship of the Babbage asset. We look forward to a successful long-term partnership managing the facilities.”